Many medical procedures require the injection or aspiration of fluid. One example is angiography. Angiography is a procedure used in the detection and treatment of stenotic or narrowed blood vessels. During angiography, a radiographic image of a vascular structure is obtained by injecting radiopaque fluid or contrast through a catheter into a vein or artery. The contrast is injected into a patient using a syringe which is powered either manually or by a power injector. Throughout the procedure, the injection device and catheter remain in fluid communication with the vein or artery.
Once the contrast is injected into the targeted blood vessel, the vascular structure fills with contrast. X-rays are then taken of the region of the body in which the contrast material was injected which allow for visualization of the vessel containing contrast by creating a radiographic image of the blood vessel containing the contrast material. The radiographic image of the blood vessels filled with the contrast material is usually recorded onto film or videotape and then displayed on a fluoroscopic monitor.
During this procedure, it may also be necessary to inject the patient with saline solution or other fluids. Like the contrast, these fluids are injected into the patient using a syringe.
In addition to injecting fluids, the treating physician may also want to remove fluids from the patient for culture or other diagnostic procedures. Fluid is aspirated by drawing the fluid into a syringe and then pumping it out of the syringe into a collection receptacle either manually or by a powered pump.
Because many different fluids may be injected or aspirated with a syringe during angiography and other medical procedures, the syringe must be connected easily and quickly to several different fluid lines. As a result, the syringe is commonly attached to a multi-port manifold which has ports connected to many different fluid sources.
Currently, many devices for fluid management consist of a syringe adapted to be attached to a separate manifold having multiple handles, e.g. one to five, which are used to control the injection or aspiration of various fluids. While the manifold may have any number of control handles, most manifolds have three handles which are connected to a saline fluid line, a contrast fluid line and a fluid line connected to a pressure transducer. A fourth port is sometimes included for connection to a collection or waste receptacle. Control handles on each port of the multi-port manifold regulate the amount of fluid that enters or exits the syringe. Each handle may have a different routing configuration or degree of rotational freedom depending on the design of the manifold. For example, it is common for handles to have rotational positions of 90°, 180° or 270°.
It would be advantageous to have a smaller device that has one control handle and incorporates the functions of the syringe and the manifold. One advantage of using a smaller, single-handle manifold syringe is that the operator is able to quickly switch between operative ports. Additionally, the single-handle manifold syringe is easier to use because only one handle must be manipulated.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a fluid management apparatus which performs the functions of a syringe and multi-port manifold for injection and aspiration of fluids and which has a single control handle to facilitate use of the device.